Henri Manuel (24 April 1874 – 11 September 1947) was a French

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

who served as the official photographer of the French government from 1914 to 1944.

Photography studio

In 1900, Manuel opened a portrait studio in Paris with his brother Gaston, which specialised in

portrait photography Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective Photographic lighting, lighting, Painted photography backdrops, backdrops, and poses. A portr ...

. Manuel quickly became renowned as a photographer of people from the worlds of politics, art and sports, as well as a photographer of art and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

. Soon his portraits were used by news agencies, and in 1910 Manuel's studio began providing a commercial service to news agencies for photographs known as "l'Agence universelle de reportage Henri Manuel". The studio became the largest photographic studio in Paris and a leading centre where young aspiring photographers such as

Thérèse Bonney Thérèse Bonney (born Mabel Bonney; July 15, 1894 – January 15, 1978) was an American photographer and publicist. She was best known for her images taken during World War II on the Russian-Finnish front. Her war effort earned her the decorati ...

might go to work. In 1925, the brothers moved their business to 27 rue du Faubourg Montmartre, where they expanded their business into fashion photography for the likes of

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and

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. By 1941 the studio had produced over a million images, spread between fashion photographs, news agency photographs, personal portraits and other images. The studio was shut down during the Second World War, and most of the

photographic plate Photographic plates preceded film as the primary medium for capturing images in photography. These plates, made of metal or glass and coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, were integral to early photographic processes such as heliography, d ...

s were destroyed. Some 500 survived, and ultimately passed into possession of the

Médiathèque de l'architecture et du patrimoine A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manuel, Henri 1874 births 1947 deaths French photographers